1. Technical Field
The invention relates to ephemeral and physical material. More particularly, the invention relates to installation of computer software, automatic operation of computer software, and the retooling of real time processes, e.g. for assembly lines.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Removable media, such as CD-ROMs, are widely used to distribute various materials, including entertainment and application software, image and font catalogues, and multi-media programming. Delivery of the material contained on such media requires user installation of the material onto a system level storage medium, such as a hard disk. CD-ROMs are not able to modify their contents, for example to set user preferences, without altering a host system, nor are they are able remove materials from a system after use. Thus, CD-ROM drives are a form of peripheral device, i.e. they are not fully integrated into the operation of the system because they are read-only devices.
J. Stringer, T. Richards, Transformation of Ephemeral Materials, U.S. Pat. No. 5,341,429 (23 Aug. 1994) discloses a system that is used to repurpose material for off-line trial use, and to enable such material if subsequently authorized. In such system, interaction with the author/owner of the original material is not required. One limitation of this system is that it does not protect a user's computer configuration from modification when auditioning trial versions of ephemeral material. Such system also does not allow automatic uninstall of the materials, such that the system is allowed to revert back to a previous configuration.
A commercially available software product, MicroHelp Uninstaller (MicroHelp, Inc., 4359 Shallowford Industrial Parkway, Marietta, Ga. 30066), is useful to build a database about various applications, such that removal of an application from a system is simplified. However, such product does not virtualize between media to improve cost or performance, i.e. it does not create a virtual write-read device, for example by mapping a CD-ROM to a hard drive; nor does it support bi-directional installation, where shared resources revert back to a previous version, e.g. where a system is automatically returned to a previous configuration after the materials are no longer in use.
Another commercially available software product is Phoenix CD Essentials (Phoenix technologies Ltd., 846 University Ave., Norwood, Mass. 02062), which is useful to detect the presence of a previously installed CD-ROM, and thereafter automatically launch an application contained on said CD-ROM. However, the product does not virtualize between media to improve performance or cost, nor does the product support bi-directional installation, where shared resources revert back to a previous version when they are no longer in use.
Microsoft Windows 95 AutoPlay (Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, Wash.) provides a product feature that can detect the presence of a compliant CD-ROM and automatically launch an application contained on such CD-ROM. However, the product may need to change the application installation to comply with an AutoPlay enable format. Additionally, the product does not virtualize across media to improve performance, nor does the product automatically support bi-directional install, where shared resources revert back to a previous version when they are no longer in use.
Predictive caching is a known technique that can analyze the use of an application to determine a virtualization strategy. See, for example M. Palmer, Predictive Cache System, U.S. Pat. No. 5,305,389 (19 Apr. 1994), which discloses a system in which prefetches to a cache memory subsystem are made from predictions that are based on access patterns stored by context. Such access patterns are generated during a training sequence. However, predictive caching does not redirect complex references to an application to new location (e.g. from a CD-ROM to a hard disk), nor does it support bi-directional install, where shared resources revert back to a previous version when they are no longer in use.
Configuration management systems are also known, e.g. MKS RCS (Mortice Kern Systems, Inc., 35 King St. North, Waterloo, ONT N2J 2W9). Such systems identify differences between text files, allow bi-directional modifications to the files, and allow reversion back to a previous version. However, the scope of such systems is limited to special purpose text files. Accordingly, such systems do not work on a finished binary version of an application.